Case Number 24638

IRON SKY (BLU-RAY)

The Charge

The Reich strikes back.

Opening Statement

What is an appropriate level of expectation for a movie about Nazis on the
moon? I would assume it's cautiously high. Right? Turns out, whether or not
Iron Sky delivers on the promise of campy sci-fi and Lunar-Nazi
comeuppance depends solely on your ability to withstand four-year-old political
satire.

Facts of the Case

In 2018, a politically motivated mission to the moon leads to two astronauts
discovering The Fourth Reich. Since the mid-40s, these Nazis have been living on
the dark side of the Moon in a swastika-shaped space station planning their
revenge on the planet Earth. Well, now's as good a time as any.

The Evidence

There's something pretty awesome happening in the Northern European film
community. What was once the land of cold, depressing (and beautiful) art house
cinema has now blossomed into a burgeoning community of genre-oriented
filmmakers. Dead Snow, Troll Hunter, and now Iron Sky are
showing that you can make decent-looking, low-budget pulp without it turning
into a terrible Syfy channel "movie of the week." That said, Iron
Sky doesn't quite live up to the hype in the way the zombie Nazis did in
Dead Snow.

The film's main problem is apparent within the first scene of the movie: a
Lunar Lander arrives on the Moon and is immediately ordered to unfurl its
banners. In comes two glowing red signs that read "YES SHE CAN" and
are adorned with the face of the President of the United States: Sarah
Palin...or a third-tier impersonation of Sarah Palin by Stephanie Paul (Film
School Confidential). While they never call out Palin by name, the bangs and
red jacket are as blatant as it gets. Maybe it took that long for this film to
get financed, or perhaps writer/director Timo Vuorensola thought shoving her in
there would still be relevant; either way, it's a bad choice that ends up
hurting the film. Iron Sky has plenty of lame jokes, including some
uncomfortable racial humor, but I couldn't get over how immediately dated
everything felt when it came to the film's politics -- I'm not even a Palin
supporter, I just hate bad satire.

When the film isn't being bogged down by jokes stolen from Jay Leno's
monologues in 2008, there's actually a fun story to be told. U.S. astronaut,
James Washington (Christopher Kirby, The Matrix Revolutions), who first
discovers the Nazis, ends up being the film's hero alongside turncoat Renate
Richter (Julia Dietze, Love in Thoughts). Together, the two of them are
racing to stop the Nazis from using the President's reelection campaign as a
means to invade the Earth. It's a loosely constructed story with motivations and
tone all over the place, but it offers extended periods of thrilling chases and
goofy action.

The film's villainous Nazis are awesome. Halfway between the
vintage-futurism of Captain America: The First Avenger's Hydra troops and
steampunk time capsules (with the "fish out of water" humor of
Encino Man), they're both cartoonish and menacing. Their space-age
technology is all rooted in the gears and mechanics of the 40s, unchanged
despite decades on the moon. Once Iron Sky begins its climax, and Earth
is bombarded by "meteorblitzkrieg" from space zeppelins, you'll be
sold on the concept. The cool space battles make the film's dumb jokes even more
upsetting.

Iron Sky had a budget of about $11 million, which is less than even
cheap indie films get made for. Despite this, the film's effects artists and
animators do an admirable job creating a near future that's kind of believable
but ultra stylized. Most of the movie's backgrounds and environments are CGI,
with the actors occupying real sets in the foreground. The depth and design put
into the moon base machinations looks as good as anything Michael Bay would come
up with. The team's green screen technique (placing actors on small, real sets
and adding in the background) works about 75 percent of the time. While on the
Moon, Iron Sky almost resembles Sky Captain and the World of
Tomorrow with its monochrome palette, hazy video filters, and bold shadows.
Things get a little off whenever the film returns to Earth; thanks to the
high-def Blu-ray, the seams begin to show.

Iron Sky looks really good for what it is. The special effects are
generally believable in 2.35:1/1080p HD; the colors are crisp and bold; the
contrast is as sharp as a knife. It's that pristine contrast that makes the
green screen work somewhat obvious, but it never detracts from the action. The
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track is mixed well, with pounding explosions, clear
dialogue, and a score full of cheese. The space sequences really are an
immersive, exciting experience. Included on the disc is a commentary track with
the director and producer, an insightful making-of featurette, some
behind-the-scenes videos, and the trailer that started the whole thing. It's not
the most robust Blu-ray in the world, but what's there is certainly
appreciated.

Closing Statement

Like any good B-movie, Iron Sky can be summed up with a single
sentence: Nazis on the Moon. As long as Vuorensola's film is focusing on that
premise, it works and I'm happy. The cheesy archetypes, the absurd mechanical
spaceships, the Volkswagen Beetle that Hitler drives around his swastika moon
base...it's all ridiculous. But at some point in the development process, the
screenwriters thought that all of that should share equal screen time with stale
political parody rooted in a vice presidential candidate from the 2008 election.
It's not a fatal choice, but it's certainly a crippling one.